Hi All- I am new to the forum and just was given a 78 Hobie 16 that is need of a bit of repair. I'm not a complete newbie when it comes to boat restoration, but have never done a Hobie and would be very appreciative of any advice forum members can provide to help me make fewer mistakes. Right now I have the boat apart and need to repair some compression cracks in the hulls and then plan to re-gel coat both hulls. The hulls are both rock solid with no soft spots, but the cracks in the gel-coat along the insides of the hulls look to be caused by improper trailer loading. The keels on both hulls are also worn through the gel coat to the glass weave and there is a crack on the deck of the starboard hull about 10 in long just outside of the forward pylon (?). I'm assuming all the damage is just on the surface since neither hull had any water and the boat had been used for most of the summer in the current condition without the plugs ever being pulled. I have two main questions right now:

1.) What would you recommend to make the repairs to the hulls? Would you recommend laying a strip of mat over the keels since they are so worn? Also, what should I plan to do with the deck repair (the crack is in the textured non-skid).2.) How much gel-coat should I plan to purchase? I do intend to spray it on and do the deck and hulls.

I know pictures will help greatly for your assessment, and will post a few of the damaged areas I just described when I get back to the house this weekend. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Thanks for the reply's. I appreciate the link to the guy who refurbed the 81 Hobie 16. I'm hopefully going to be done with the repairs and fairing by the end of the weekend, and then get to laying on the gel coat. What have you guys used to repaint the anodized aluminum and mast? I restored an old bike last winter and used Eastwood Chassis black on the frame. It's hard as nails and supposed to be resistant to salt corrosion and chips. I have a couple cans of the semi-gloss black and etching primer left over, but I'm not sure if that's enough to complete the cross beams, rudder controls and mast. Again, thanks for the links and advice.

Rustoleum Black Satin does a good job. I used it on an old rudder system that had faded almost silver and it looks pretty darn good. I does take a few days for the paint harden up and become scratch resistant. Nothing is quite a durable as the original coating and any paint is going to get scratches. I would be inclined to just not worry about it unless it looks really bad. There's a couple of post on the subject.